Behind the Great Firewall of China
What would it be like if I were in their shoes? Thatâs the question I would revolve around today. Iâll be touching on yet another social media topic, but this time in Chinaâs context.
The Great Firewall of China
I would say that the Internet is something essential to everyone regardless of any geographical factors. And yes, China is no different and is highly reliant on the Internet. In fact, it has the highest number of Internet users in the world to date, with over 700 million Internet users (Dilinger 2019). The Internet in China is often referred to as the âentertainment superhighwayâ as it is largely used for entertainment purposes with mobile smartphones being the primary link between the population and the Internet. However, with the Internet being a big thing for China and all, it is very much different from the Internet you and I know. How is it different you may ask?
The Chinese government believes that the Internet is something that they should have complete control over. With that, the Internet in China is very much protected by the Great Firewall under the âGolden Shield Projectâ. The Great Firewall acts as a censorship to block access to selected foreign websites that include politically sensitive terms, embarrassing news events, news reporting sites, political activism, religious sites, obscenity or pornography, criminal activity and many more âevilâ cultures. It also aims to neutralize critical online opinion. Some of the popular foreign websites that have been blocked are Google, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia. The government claims that these restrictions and censorships exist to maintain social order and safeguard national security (News 2018). Although this legislative action has received many critics from the outside world, let us look at how it has impacted the lives of the people of China and how they actually perceive it.
Impacts of Chinaâs Internet
We may think that the censorship is all negative and is restricting Internet freedom, but it has also positive sides that I would be discussing right now. Firstly, with the monitoring system heavily keeping hackers at bay, Chinaâs Internet is a lot safer compared to the US. It has lower rates of malicious activities such as scams, bots and zombies. Without bot-infested computers, China also has a very low rate of spams. Additionally, users are also less prone to stumble upon pornography (Marsan 2019).
Moreover, the patriots view it as something appropriate for their country as it is still a developing one and that the tight monitoring can aid in maintaining social stability. The system has also cultivated a culture whereby the citizens do not demand for those contents, ie sensitive contents that have been censored in the first place. A survey was conducted on more than 10,000 generation Z users just to find that nearly 80% are contented with how things are and believes that their country is getting better day by day (Yuan 2018). Some also stated that China is in its best time in history and is doing so much better compared to countries embroiled in wars and riots.
Their people are contented with what they have despite the censorship because the Chinese apps âhave got everythingâ and they âdonât need them (the censored sites)â. No Google? They have Baidu. No Facebook? They have Renren. No Youtube? They have YouKu. Other equivalent sites include Weibo as their Twitter, WeChat as their WhatsApp, Taobao as their eBay and the list goes on and on. Most of their people grew up with these Chinese sites and have already grown accustomed to them. They would still opt to use their Chinese apps even if they were given the chance to use the censored sites (Yuan 2018).
As a wrap, there are both positive and negative implications of Chinaâs Internet and the Great Firewall. Chinaâs homegrown apps and sites may be adequate for their people but there is still certainly a gulf with the rest of the world as the Chinese apps become useless as soon as they move abroad. Nonetheless, we can still agree that the Internet plays a major role for both China and the outside world, just with a slight difference.
Reference:
Dilinger, J 2019, List Of Countries By Internet Users, World Atlas, viewed 1 June 2019, <https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-20-countries-with-the-most-internet-users.html>
News, B 2018, The Great Firewall of China, The Washington Post, viewed 1 June 2019, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-great-firewall-of-china/2018/11/05/5dc0f85a-e16d-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4f482415d154>
Marsan, CD 2019, 10 ways the Chinese Internet is different from yours, Computer World, viewed 2 June 2019, <https://www.computerworld.com.au/slideshow/215549/10-ways-chinese-internet-different-from-yours/>
Yuan, Li 2018, Young people in China donât know the Internet we do â and they like it that way, Independent, viewed 2 June 2019, <https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/china-internet-social-media-great-firewall-of-china-censorship-apps-a8510036.html>














